The architectural award is organized by the Initiative Bauen mit Backstein, a consortium of 12 leading brick manufacturers in Germany. Two supporting members complement the portfolio of the initiative with their products. The competition has been supported by the Association of German Architects (Bund Deutscher Architektinnen und Architekten BDA) as partners since 2011.

The Award for Brick Architecture was first held in 2008 and is awarded every three years, With more than 600 national and international entries it is now one of the largest German architectural awards. The current competition runs from January 9th 2023, through April 30th 2023. You can find out more about past competitions here:

• Fritz Höger Award 2008 for Brick Architecture
• Fritz Höger Award 2011 for Brick Architecture
• Fritz Höger Award 2014 for Brick Architecture
• Fritz Höger Award 2017 for Brick Architecture
• Fritz Höger Award 2020 for Brick Architecture

The ceremony for the 2023 Erich Mendelsohn Award for Brick Architecture – which will include the official announcement of the winners – will take place in Berlin in fall 2023. The exact location and date of the event will be announced over the next months.

Those eligible to take part include architects, architectural teams and architectural/engineering teams provided they are the intellectual creators of the works entered. Developers and investors who have created works in cooperation with architects should submit these together with the architects responsible or provide a corresponding declaration of copyright from the architect concerned.

A Newcomer Award will be offered again as part of the Erich Mendelsohn Award. It is aimed at architectural students, graduates and architects who received their degree no more than four years ago. A certificate of study or degree certificate will serve as proof. Please include the copy with the registration form that you receive by e-mail after submitting your project. Please send us the certificate – together with the completed declaration of copyright – by post or e-mail. Without the certificate your projects will not be admitted for the Newcomer Award.

There are four categories for which you can submit your project:

• Detached house/semi-detached house

• Residential building/apartment complex

• Office and commercial buildings

• Public buildings, recreation and sport

Additional awards will be presented for:

• Renovation/Sustainability/Energy efficiency

In addition, the prize for budding architects will be awarded for the forth time:

• Newcomer Award

Yes, of course. And we are happy to support you in this. If you would like to submit one project in two categories, we can simplify the handling of the entire submission process for you. You only have to submit your project once. We can duplicate it afterwards.  

And this is how it works: Submit the complete documents for one category once. Then briefly tell us by e-mail info@erich-mendelsohn-preis.com in which other category you would like to submit the same project. We will then duplicate the already submitted project for you. Your advantage: You do not have to pass in the complete documents for the second category again.  

Of course, you can also submit your project in both selected categories self-contained. In this case, we do not need an extra e-mail. No matter which way you prefer, please keep in mind: For each single submission, the submission fee is charged. Thus, in case of submitting one project in two categories, the submission fee will be charged twice.

Structures with a concept or construction whose essential feature is the use of brick are eligible for submission. Brick is understood as a generic term for facade bricks fired from clay, i.e. bricks, facing bricks, facing bricks, clinker bricks or clinker brick slips. In the past, however, the awarding authority and jury have always been open to creative interpretations and applications that go beyond this. This should continue to be the case.

Projects with at least one of the following characteristics are not eligible for the competition:

• The project was already completed prior to January 1, 2018.
• The project is not completed at the time of registration or it is a project idea that has not yet been realized (exception: entry for the Newcomer Award).
• The project was already nominated for the Fritz Höger Award 2020 for Brick Architecture.
• Buildings which do not have a facade construction with the essential appearance of visible or facing brickwork.
• Entries not submitted by the intellectual creator, or without their consent.

Yes, buildings can of course be entered for the competition with facades made of quarter brick.

Yes, resubmission is possible. However, the prerequisite is that the property was completed after January 1, 2018, and was not nominated for the Fritz Höger Award 2020 for Brick Architecture.

Yes, only realized projects that have been completed at the time of submission can be entered. Exception: the Newcomer Award. For the Newcomer Award it is also possible to enter project ideas or unrealized drafts.

No. The Erich Mendelsohn Award for Brick Architecture is an international competition. International entries are of course welcome. The country of the office of the submitting architect and the location of the property are irrelevant. What matters is the quality of the entry and not where it comes from.

Yes, projects can be entered in English or German.

No, participants may enter as many properties as they like provided they adhere to the Terms of participation.

A participation fee will be charged for the Erich Mendelsohn Award 2023 for Brick Architecture that will be due when a project is entered. It will be used exclusively to cover the increased administrative costs and to maintain the usual high quality of external communications. The Newcomer Award is exempted from the participation fee. The participation fee applies to each project and is to be paid immediately when online submission is made at erich-mendelsohn-preis.com/entry. The Early Bird fee is EUR 159 (plus VAT). Starting from March 1st 2023 the regular participation fee (EUR 197 plus VAT) applies.

No. The Erich Mendelsohn Award for Brick Architecture is an independent and non-commercial prize. Information about the bricks used and their manufacturer are optional parts of the property description and do not have to be mentioned.

Yes, the winning projects and their creators will be presented to a broad public. This will include press releases, publications on the web, in the magazine, in a traveling exhibition, and much more. To ensure that there are no conflicts regarding authorship, the signed declaration of authorship, which was developed together with the BVAF e. V. (Federal Association of Architectural Photography) and the BDA, is a mandatory requirement for a project to be presented to the jury. The form for this is provided in the submission process. We recommend clarifying the rights of third parties (e.g. photographers) on the basis of this declaration.

All mandatory fields marked with an asterisk (*) must be completed. This includes the following details:

• Project name, project category, project location
• Area information: plot size, built-up area, gross area, usable area
• Type of use, number of buildings, number of floors, construction time
• Project description
• Contact person
• Images and plans

All other details are optional.

Tip: The more insightful the description of your entry is, the easier it will be for the jury to gain a picture of your project.

No. Submission is only possible online in the submission portal at erich-mendelsohn-preis.com.

Plans should be b/w line drawings and submitted as PDF or EPS files. Please do not submit any JPG files. You may also attach DWG/DXF files.

Note: The scale should be indicated on all plans. The scale of the plans being submitted may of course vary depending on the size of the project. Please do not place any logo on uploaded plans and do not indicate the name of the office.

Images should be submitted as single DIN A4 images, as printable data (300 dpi) in JPG or TIFF format.

Note: Please always enter a descriptive caption and a copyright. Please do not place any logo on uploaded images and do not indicate the name of the office.

Files should ideally be in JPG/JPEG format and not exceed 16 MB per image. If you have problems uploading, please check your image data, reduce the file size if necessary, and remove any irrelevant details. If the upload still does not work, please contact us by e-mail (info@erich-mendelsohn-preis.com). We will be happy to assist you.

Use single-page PDF documents in RGB color mode in order to upload PDF documents without any problem. The same general rule also applies here: the smaller the file size, the faster the upload. If the upload does not work even after reducing the file size, you can contact us by e-mail (info@erich-mendelsohn-preis.com). We will be happy to assist you.

Tip: when uploading, use PDF documents that are only one page long and do not combine multiple pages into one document. Reduce your drawing to the bare minimum (e.g. remove unnecessary hatching and details). After completing online submission, you will receive an overview of your submission. This document is generated automatically and can only fully display PDF documents which do not exceed one page.

After you have logged in and accessed your online submission, you will find an overview of the projects you have prepared under “My Projects”. Complete the following steps:

• Click on the project that you wish to activate for submission.
• Check your project information and correct any mistakes.
• Read and accept the terms of participation.
• Click on the “Submit project now” button.

If you log in and access the online submission portal, you will find an overview of the projects you have already created for participation in the competition under “My Projects”. Once the online submission has been completed, you only have to return the signed declaration of copyright, which the initiative Bauen mit Backstein (Building with Brick) has set up in cooperation with the BVAF e.V. (Federal Association of Architectural Photography) and the BDA. You will receive the copyright notice immediately after completing the submission. Please send us the declaration of copyright by e-mail (info@erich-mendelsohn-preis.com) or post (Initiative Bauen mit Backstein, Am Mittelhafen 10, 48155 Münster). Your project will be highlighted in orange under “My Projects” as long as it is being reviewed. If the status of your project is green, the submission was successfully completed.

No. Once you have clicked the submission button in “Projects”, you can no longer make any changes or corrections to your entry. Please contact us by e-mail (info@erich-mendelsohn-preis.com) if you still wish to make subsequent changes. It is possible for us to switch your project back to editable. We will be happy to assist you.

Participants will receive a confirmation e-mail directly after they have activated their project for submission. It contains a registration form with an overview of project information and photos as well as a declaration of copyright. If you do not find this email in your inbox after a few minutes, it can be for one of the following reasons:

• The confirmation e-mail has landed in your spam folder. Please check there first.
• The e-mail address of the contact person specified during project submission and the e-mail address you used are not the same (in this case, the confirmation e-mail was sent to the contact person specified).
• The file size of the registration form exceeds the capacity of your mailbox and cannot be delivered. (Reason: the registration form is generated automatically on the basis of the photographs you uploaded. The larger the number and file size of the processed photos, the larger the amount of data in the form.) If necessary, please contact us by e-mail at info@erich-mendelsohn-preis.com

Yes! After paying, your project is set to "draft" - only when you finally save ("Save" instead of just "Save project"), the project is set to "review". If you have already submitted the final version by mistake or if you have any requests for changes, please contact us by e-mail (info@erich-mendelsohn-preis.com). We will be happy to help you and subsequently release your project for editing.